Professor Vernon Smith, a 2002 Nobel laureate in economics, served as the first Rasmuson Chair in Economics. Professor Smith is an economist at Chapman University, ICES Emeritus faculty at George Mason University, and president of IFREE.

Professor Kelcie Ralph is a 2009 graduate of UAA's Department of Economics. She earned her Ph.D. from UCLA, where her dissertation project evaluated the causes and consequences of the decline in driving among young adults. Before attending UCLA, Kelcie studied as a Marshall Scholar in England, where she earned a Masters of Environmental Policy from Cambridge University and a Masters of City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

Maroš Servátka is a Professor of Economics at Macquarie Business School. He is the founding director of the MGSM Vernon L. Smith Experimental Economics Laboratory and the founder and a former president of the Slovak Economic Association. Maroš specializes in experimental and behavioral economics and has experience consulting to industry, government & non-profit organizations on behavioral approaches and solutions. He has conducted research in the area of charitable giving in order to help charities to raise funds and provided behavioral insights to businesses on market strategy, customer service, and project planning.

Jacob Gellman (2023-2025)

Jacob Gellman was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Starting in Fall 2025 he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at Oregon State University. His research focuses on the economics of climate risk and adaptation. Some recent projects investigate the cost of hurricane evacuations, adaptation to climate change and natural disasters in homeowners insurance markets, and welfare damages of wildfire smoke for outdoor recreation.

Jacob holds a PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. As a researcher at the Earth Research Institute in Santa Barbara he worked on interdisciplinary wildfire issues with economists, ecologists, meteorologists, and other natural scientists. Previously he was an energy economics consultant, where he advised utilities and tribes on energy decisions and produced expert witness testimony for government entities.

Aaron Enriquez (2021-2023)

Aaron Enriquez was a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage before his employment with USGS. He is an environmental and natural resource economist whose research interests include informing the management of natural resources over time using dynamic bioeconomic models and eliciting people’s values for nonmarket goods using nonmarket valuation methods. He is particularly interested in integrating the two methods to improve models of combined human and natural systems.

Aaron has an interdisciplinary background. He holds a BS in biology, a BS in economics, an MS in economics, environment, and natural resources, and a PhD in economics, all from the University of Wyoming. As a graduate student, his research centered around the interactions of humans and grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. He taught courses both for the Department of Economics and the Haub School of Natural Resources.

Hannah Hennighausen (2020-2022)

Hannah Hennighausen completed her PhD in Economics at the University of Graz, where she was also a member of the interdisciplinary Doctoral School Climate Change at the Wegener Center. She holds a master’s degree in agricultural and resource economics from UC Davis and a bachelor’s degree in economics from American University. The central theme of her research is investigating how individuals adapt to environmental risk, deriving insights from quasi-experimental methods applied to administrative and geospatial datasets.Her current work is motivated by increasing pressures from climate change complicated by socio-economic factors. In examining behavioral responses to risk, she aims to inform policymakers about the distribution of future climate change costs and assist them in their decision-making about local, risk-reducing investments.

Hannah is now an Assistant Professor with UAA's Department of Economics.

Dr. Henngihausen's Website

Nathaly Rivera (2018-2020)

Nathaly Rivera is an Environmental and Resource Economist. Her research interests specifically include natural-resource-rich economies, and non-market valuation of environmental amenities. Nathaly has also done some work on evaluation of environmental policy and mechanisms to reduce airborne pollution. She holds an MSc degree in Regional Economics from Universidad Católica del Norte (Chile), and a PhD degree in Environmental and Resource Economics from Michigan State University. Prior to joining UAA, Nathaly was a Graduate and a Teaching Assistant at Michigan State University.

Nathaly is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chile.

Dr. Rivera's Website

Brett Watson (2019-2021)

Brett Watson is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska Anchorage. His work focuses on how natural resource wealth is created, managed, and distributed both nationally and in the state of Alaska. He is particularly interested in applying modern econometric approaches to questions surrounding resource policy, community engagement with resources, and extractive firm behavior.

Brett earned his PhD and MS in Mineral and Energy Economics from Colorado School of Mines and BBA in Economics from Texas State University. Prior to joining ISER, he worked as a research associate at the Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute studying the supply chains for rare and specialized materials for use in clean energy applications.

Dr. Watson's Website